This time around, there was no one to blame. Or no one who was on the field during Super Bowl XXXVII, anyhow.

This time, there are no what-ifs. And there are certainly no excuses. There was no Tony Siragusa knocking Rich Gannon out of the game, as there was in the 2001 AFC Championship. There was no blizzard, as there was in last year’s divisional-playoff game against the Patriots in Foxborough. There was at least one terrible call (Oakland Raiders wide receiver Jerry Porter was ruled out of bounds on a two-point conversion catch despite the fact that he had obviously been pushed), but that hardly made the difference in a game decided by a score of 48-21.

This time around, the Raiders were simply outclassed and outplayed. They were beaten up and down the field by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

It would never have happened if Raiders owner Al Davis hadn’t let the great genius of the modern game, Jon Gruden, go to Tampa Bay in the off-season. Tampa would never have survived the NFC playoffs without Gruden’s guidance. But Davis did let Gruden go — for a pocketful of gold coins and a couple of draft picks — and that made all the difference.

So there was no redemption. There was no making up for the disappointments and injustices of the past two NFL playoff seasons. And there will be no fourth Lombardi trophy for Oakland — not this year, and, in all likelihood, not for several years to come.

This is as depressing as it gets for those of us who are part of so-called Raider Nation, we who waited 19 years for our team to return to the Super Bowl. Our team will not be remembered as the team regarded as too old to hold on through the end of the regular season, but that still managed to win the AFC Championship in decisive fashion. It will be remembered as the Buffalo Bills are remembered, as the Patriots used to be remembered — as the team that couldn’t get it done in the big game.

Worse, this Raiders team will be remembered as the team that couldn’t get it done in spite of its players’ years of NFL experience, in spite of its supposedly crushing offensive line, in spite of a quarterback who was nearly flawless through the regular season. It will be remembered as the team that brought all that to the field and then watched its opponent neutralize every last bit of it, as the team with the killer quarterback who threw five interceptions (three of which were returned for touchdowns) in the most important game of his career.

And for those of us who care about the team, it will be remembered as another Raiders squad that could have had it all if it weren’t for the most overrated owner in football. Al Davis, lauded frequently as a football god, has made it clear that his only true concern is money. Davis, who gave Gruden his start as a head coach three years ago, couldn’t see past the dollar signs when Gruden asked to have his salary (then lowest in the league) renegotiated before the 2001 season. And in doing that, he let a guy whom everyone remotely interested in pro football recognized as one of the all-time great coaches walk away.

Gruden went to Tampa, a perennial also-ran, and in one season crafted a champion. Indeed, he has probably crafted an NFL dynasty (to the extent that’s possible in the age of the salary cap). Unlike the Raiders, who will have to gut their team to get within the cap (contractual pay increases are scheduled to put the team $47 million over the cap for next season), the Bucs will be able to retain their key players. They won’t be able to fill holes with draft picks, but there aren’t many (any?) holes left to fill. And what little work they will have to do can be accomplished with free agency.

Barring major injuries, the Bucs seem sure to return to the Super Bowl next season. There, they’ll beat the New York Jets and become the first repeat league champs since the Denver Broncos did it in Super Bowls XXXII and XXXIII.

That’s the hated Denver Broncos, if you’re a Raiders fan. But these will never be the hated Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Most of us in Raiders Nation have too much respect and admiration for Gruden to hate the Bucs, even after what happened on Sunday. We know what really brought this about. We saw it coming a year ago.

This time, no one involved in the game is to blame. Not the officials. Not some dirty opposing defender. Not even Gannon. If there’s blame, it belongs to the increasingly rich guy in the goofy-looking gold eyeglasses. And unlike many of the Raiders’ players, he’s not going anywhere.